CONTENTS OF INTERPLANETARY SPACE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 36, 12 September 1891, Page 360

CONTENTS OF INTERPLANETARY SPACE.

With regard to the contents of interplanetary space three hypotheses says Sydney Lupton in Nature, seems to be more or less in vogue :—(1) That it is filled with ether, differing entirely in its properties from ordinary matter, and offering no resistance to the passage of solid or gaseous bodies. (2) That it is filled with a substance more or less analagous to ordinary matter —a highly ratified gaseous medium which offers tome resistance. (3) That it is filled with ether through which innumerable solid bodies of comparatively small size fiy singly or in swarms, and by collision give rise to meteorites, shooting stars, comets, etc. If the first hypothesis be true, and space offers no resistance to the passage of the planets, the present condition of the solar system may continue indefinitely ; if the second, the resistance. however slight it may be, will tend to retard both the rotatory and orbital motions of the planets, and cause them to fall towards the sun ; if the third, the rain of meteorites will have no effect on the earth's rotation, but will tend to lessen the orbital velocity.